The Charter of the Forest 1217
The Forest Law made during the reign of King John at the
same time as Magna Carta
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Henry, by the
grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and
count of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons,
justices, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and
faithful subjects, greeting. Know that out of reverence for God and for the
salvation of our soul and the souls of our ancestors and successors, for the
exaltation of holy church and the reform of our realm, we have granted and by
this present charter confirmed for us and our heirs for ever, on the advice of
our venerable father, the lord Gualo, cardinal priest
of St Martin and legate of the apostolic see, of the lord Walter archbishop of
York, William bishop of London and the other bishops of England and of William
Marshal earl of Pembroke, ruler of us and of our kingdom, and our other
faithful earls and barons of England, these liberties written below to be held
in our kingdom of England for ever.
1. In the first place, all the forests which
king Henry our grandfather made forest shall be viewed by good and law-worthy
men, and if he made forest any wood that was not his demesne to the injury of
him whose wood it was, it shall be disafforested. And if he made his own wood
forest, it shall remain forest, saving common of pasture and other things in
that forest to those who were accustomed to have them previously.
2. Men who live outside the forest need not
henceforth come before our justices of the forest upon a general summons,
unless they are impleaded or are sureties for any person or persons who are
attached for forest offences.
3. All woods made forest by king Richard our
uncle, or by king John our father, up to the time of our first coronation shall
be immediately disafforested unless it be our demesne wood.
4. Archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors,
earls, barons, knights and freeholders who have woods within forests shall have
them as they had them at the time of the first coronation of the aforesaid king
Henry our grandfather, so that they shall be quit forever in respect of all purprestures [the unlawful seizure of the king’s land],
wastes and assarts [new fields created from
previously waste land, with the agreement of the lord] made in those woods
between that time and the beginning of the second year of our coronation. And
those who in future make waste, purpresture or assart
in them without licence from us shall answer for wastes, purprestures
and assarts.
5. Our regarders shall go through the
forests making the regard as it used to be made at the time of the first
coronation of the aforesaid king Henry our grandfather, and not otherwise.
6. The inquest or view of the expediting of
dogs in the forest shall henceforth be made when the regard ought to be made,
namely every third year, and then made by the view and testimony of law-worthy
men and not otherwise. And he whose dog is then found not expedited shall give
as amercement three shillings, and in future no ox shall be seized for failure
to expedite. The manner, moreover, of expediting by the assize shall generally
be that three claws of the forefoot are to be cut off, but not the ball. Nor
shall dogs henceforth be expedited except in places where it was customary to
expedite them at the time of the first coronation of king Henry our
grandfather.
[this was a
process called ‘lawing’. It meant of course that the dog would be incapable of
hunting the King’s game]
7. No forester or beadle shall henceforth
make scotale or levy sheaves of corn, or oats or
other grain or lambs or piglets or make any other levy. And by the view and
oath of twelve regarders when they make the regard as many foresters are to be
set to keep the forests as shall seem to them reasonably sufficient for keeping
them.
[Scotale was where the officer of the forest kept an
alehouse, and basically forced the locals to come and use it, on the
understanding that if they didn’t he’d find a way to make trouble for them.]
8. No swanimote shall henceforth be held in
our kingdom except three times a year, namely a fortnight before the feast of
St Michael, when the agisters meet to agist our demesne
woods, and about the feast of St Martin, when our agisters ought to receive our
pannage-dues; and at these two swanimotes foresters, verderers and agisters
shall appear but no one else shall be compelled to do so; and the third
swanimote shall be held a fortnight before the feast of St John the Baptist for
the fawning of our beasts, and for holding this swanimote foresters and
verderers shall come but no others shall be compelled to do so. And in addition
every forty days throughout the year the verderers and foresters shall meet to
view attachments of the forest both of the vert and of the venison on the
presentment of those foresters and with the attached present. The aforesaid
swanimotes however shall only be held in counties in which they were wont to be
held.
[A swanimote was
a forest court. The king had been given to sending out his foresters to take
courts, to raise revenue for the crown as much as bringing truth, light and
justice. So now there are rules.]
[Agist is pasturage, the right to grazing. Pannage is
similar, but refers specifically tot right to take pigs into the forest to
feed. And dig up truffles, eat acorns, that sort of thing.]
9. Every free man shall agist
his wood in the forest as he wishes and have his pannage. We grant also that
every free man can conduct his pigs through our demesne wood freely and without
impediment to agist them in his own woods or anywhere
else he wishes. And if the pigs of any free man shall spend one night in our
forest he shall not on that account be so prosecuted that he loses anything of
his own.
10. No one shall henceforth lose life or limb
because of our venison, but if anyone has been arrested and convicted of taking
venison he shall be fined heavily if he has the means; and if he has not the
means, he shall lie in our prison for a year and a day; and if after a year and
a day he can find pledges he may leave prison; but if not, he shall abjure the
realm of England.
[Venison now of
course means Deer, but then referred to the meat of any game.]
11. Any archbishop, bishop, earl or baron
whatever who passes through our forest shall be allowed to take one or two
beasts under the supervision of the forester, if he is to hand; but if not, let
him have the horn blown, lest he seem to be doing it furtively.
12. Every free man may henceforth without being
prosecuted make in his wood or in land he has in the forest a mill, a preserve,
a pond, a marl-pit, a ditch, or arable outside the covert in arable land, on
condition that it does not harm any neighbour.
13. Every free man shall have the eyries of
hawks, sparrowhawks, falcons, eagles and herons in his woods, and likewise
honey found in his woods.
14. No forester henceforth who is not a
forester-in-fee rendering us a farm for his bailiwick may exact any chiminage [this is a toll levied on transport] in his
bailiwick; but a forester-in-fee rendering us a farm for his bailiwick may
exact chiminage, namely for a cart for half a year 2d
and for the other half year 2d, and for a horse with a load for half a year
1/2d and for the other half year 1/2d, and only from those who come from
outside his bailiwick as merchants with his permission into his bailiwick to
buy wood, timber, bark, or charcoal and take them elsewhere to sell where they
wish; and from no other cart or load shall any chiminage
be exacted, and chiminage shall only be exacted in
places where it used to be exacted of old and ought to have been exacted.
Those, on the other hand, who carry wood, bark, or charcoal on their backs for
sale, although they get their living by it, shall not in future pay chiminage. In respect of the woods of others no chiminage shall be given to our foresters beyond [that
given] in respect of our own woods.
15. All who from the time of king Henry our
grandfather up to our first coronation have been outlawed for a forest offence
only shall be released from their outlawry without legal proceedings and shall
find reliable pledges that they will not do wrong to us in the future in
respect of our forest.
16. No castellan or other person may hold forest
pleas either of the vert or the venison but each forester-in-fee shall attach
forest pleas of both the vert and the venison and present them to the verderers
of the districts and when they have been enrolled and closed under the seals of
the verderers they shall be presented to the head forester when he arrives in
those parts to hold forest pleas and be determined before him.
Pleas of the
‘vert’ are pleas concerning any aspect of maintaining the plant life and cover
the ‘venison’ needed. Verderes are therefore the
king’s officials responsible for maintaining the vert.
17. These liberties concerning the forests we
have granted to everybody, saving to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors,
earls, barons, knights, and other persons, ecclesiastical and secular, Templars
and Hospitallers, the liberties and free customs, in forests and outside, in
warrens and other things, which they had previously. All these aforesaid
customs and liberties which we have granted to be observed in our kingdom as
far as it pertains to us towards our men, all of our kingdom, clerks as well as
laymen, shall observe as far as it pertains to them towards their men. Because
we have not yet a seal we have had the present charter sealed with the seals of
our venerable father the lord Gualo cardinal priest
of St Martin, legate of the apostolic see, and William Marshal earl of
Pembroke, ruler of us and of our kingdom.
Witness the
aforenamed and many others. Given by the hands of the aforesaid lord, the
legate, and of William Marshal at St Paul’s, London, on the sixth day of
November in the second year of our reign (i.e. John’s son, Henry III)